“For the present,” said the android, “I’m also going to have your phone shut off.”
The gunmetal robot was walking closer, staring directly at Alicia. “Just where do you think you’re going, young lady?” she asked.
Alicia was still holding tightly to Jake’s arm. “I haven’t seen you this time,” she said quietly, looking sideways at her. “And they’ve been trying to make me think you never existed.”
“You’re so addled, you poor thing, that you have no idea what’s real and what isn’t.”
“No, I was right about you, dead right,” insisted the young woman. “I remember you and—Yes, I remember what you helped them do to me the last times ... the last time I was here.”
“Well then, yes, we’ll have to get you right back to Dr. Spearman again,” said Tin Lizzie in her hollow, rumbling voice. “Stand aside, young man.”
“Your perceptors need tuning.” Jake grinned. “I’m not exactly a young man. Doesn’t matter, since I’m not going to stand aside.”
“Then I’ll have to summon assistance to handle this situation.” She raised a hand toward the panel built into her side.
“No!” Fumbling the stungun out of the pocket of her shapeless dress, Alicia clutched it with both hands and fired right at the approaching robot.
The beam struck Tin Lizzie square in the chest. She fought to get her metal fingers to the panel, but failed. Her arm swung down to her side.
When she hit the floor, facedown, there was a large rattling thud.
“Oh, dear Jesus,” said Alicia, pain sounding in her voice, “I’m starting to remember things all over again.”
He put an arm around her waist. “C’mon, or. we’ll miss our ride,” he said as they started running again.
36
THE LITTLE BLOND BOY CONTINUED to cry. Sharon Harker was holding him on her lap, hugging him, rocking gently in the fat, padded rocker. “It’s okay, Sean, it’s okay,” she was saying. “We’re safe.”
“Want to go home.”
“Soon,” his mother promised him, “in a while.”
“Want to see Pompom.”
Sharon glanced over at Jake, who was standing near Alicia’s chair. “I think he means you.”
Grinning, Jake crossed the shadowy, windowless little room. “What’s bothering you, Sean?”
The boy studied Jake’s face, then scowled. “Not him. He’s not Beepaw.” He commenced crying again, louder now, eyes shut and mouth open. “I want Beepaw.”
“We’ll see Grandpa soon,” she told him.
“Now. See him now!”
“Hush, Sean.”
The door swung open and Georgia entered. “Jake, we got a skycar for you,” she announced. “Be ready in about half hour.”
“Maybe once we get home to Greater LA, things will—”
“There’s something I want to talk about,” Alicia said to him.
“Sure.” He crouched beside her chair.
Georgia went over to Sharon and the boy. “He’s still pissed off, huh?”
“They must have given him some shots at the Centre. Painful injections, some of them, and that’s ...
“I’ve been thinking.” Alicia took Jake’s hand. “As best I can think with my addled brain.”
“Don’t let Tin Lizzie’s judgment of you—”
“No, she’s right.” She rubbed, slowly, at her temple as she spoke. “I really haven’t been thinking too clearly for quite awhile now.”
“Spearman is noted for his ability to tamper with people’s brains,” he said. “One of the guy’s specialties is erasing or altering memories.”
“I’m sure, as sure as I can be of anything at the moment, that they did something like that to me,” she continued. “When I was there last year, I mean. Then, after I started to remember again, somebody ... Who was it who arranged this, do you know?”
“Sam Trinity and the OCO are involved. We aren’t yet sure who else.”
“The thing is, Jake, if I go home now I’m still going to have all sorts of problems,” Alicia said. “I still don’t know what exactly it is that people don’t want me to know. Nor do I have the remotest idea who it is who wants me to forget. So I won’t have any guarantee that they or somebody else won’t just grab me and try all over again.” She paused, running her tongue across her upper lip. “And there are much simpler and surer ways to keep people quiet. You can, for one thing, just kill them.”
“All of that’s true,” he agreed. “Suppose you don’t deliver me home right away, Jake?”
“And instead?”
“Is there anywhere, anyplace you know of—a place where they can help me to remember?”
He thought for a few seconds before nodding. “I know of at least one, yeah,” he answered. “It’s not completely legit and doesn’t exactly do business out in the open. It’s hidden away up in New England and they specialize in what you need.”
“Will you take me there?”
“You’ve been, it’s obvious, handled very roughly by Trinity, Spearman and that gang,” he said. “Reversing the process, correcting what was done to you and retrieving your memory—that can’t help but be damned painful.”
“Not as painful as being dragged back into Mentor, and nowhere near as bad as being silenced for good.”
Jake said, “Okay, I’ll make a call.”
“Do you have to get permission from your agency before you can—”
“No, I’ll handle this on my own,” he said.
The twilight followed them as they flew eastward through the declining day. Five thousand feet below their skycar the lights of cities and towns were coming on.
Alicia, dressed now in the pullover and jeans that Georgia had dug up for her, was in the passenger seat, knees up and her arms locked around her legs. “You specialize in this sort of thing, don’t you?”
Jake was in the pilot seat. “What sort of thing?”
“Finding lost and strayed women,” she said. “Seems to me I saw something about you on the vidnews a few months back. You located somebody who’d disappeared. She was hiding out up on the Moon Colony and you brought her safely home. That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was.”
“What happened to her?”
“She’s dead.”
Alicia nodded her head slowly. “That may happen to me.”
“Eventually it happens to everybody.”
“You were in love with her,” she stated.
“I was, yes.”
“Does that happen much, your falling in love with the women you meet on cases?”
“You’re safe.”
“But are you? They must’ve told you about me,” she said. “About my bad habits and all the many men I’ve slept with. If you marched them all by a single point, the parade would last for several—”
“Tell me, if you feel up to it, some more about Spearman and what went on.”
“Do I make you feel uneasy, talking about my personal life?”
“Is that the effect you’re trying for?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “This place you’re delivering me to, these people—can they accomplish other things besides putting my memory back together?”
“Such as?”
“Oh, there are a few other problems I have,” she told him. “After I met Barry, I changed some. I don’t wander off much anymore. And I am, surprisingly, capable of being loyal.”
Jake asked her, “When you found yourself at Mentor—did you know how you got there?”
“No, but Dr. Spearman explained that I’d suffered another breakdown. Apparently I’d started behaving very oddly and it was decided to send me there again.”
“Was that why you went there before, a breakdown?”
She didn’t reply for quite awhile. “That’s the official explanation,” she said slowly. “What Spearman and my father ... She planted her feet flat on the cabin floor, straightening up in the seat. “This is very rough to talk about. Because—because of the
possibility that my father has been lying to me all along, too.”
“You suspect that you didn’t have a breakdown the other time either.”
She gave a small, agreeing nod. “That’s what I’m starting to think,” Alicia admitted. “In some ways I want to be a good girl, to go along with the whole program and help Dr. Spearman cure me, rehabilitate me and all. Another part of me, though, held out. They really want me to forget something. Spearman, I’m certain, was using techniques on me that were supposed to wipe out parts of my memory.” She paused, shaking her head. “It’s so—if they succeed, damn it, then you even forget that they did something to you to make you forget. You can go around with a bunch of false memories of what your life has been.” Jake suggested, “That’s probably enough about this for now.”
“I remembered Tin Lizzie,” she said. “I remembered that dreadful robot whom I wasn’t supposed to remember. Something inside me, because I’m stubborn at heart, Jake, something fought not to forget. It’s as though I were drowning and kept struggling back up to the surface. The trouble is, I can’t seem to get completely out of the damn water and back on the shore.” She glanced over at him. “How did she die?”
“They killed her,” he answered quietly, “the Teklords.”
“And you still feel, don’t you, that you should’ve been able to stop them and save her life?”
“I feel that, sure, because I think I could’ve.”
She said, “That’s the same way I feel about preventing ... Her voice trailed off and a deep frown touched her forehead.
“Preventing what?”
“I can’t remember,” she said.
37
THEY CAUGHT UP WITH the storm while flying over the New York Sector of Tristate. Heavy rain started hitting at the skycar and crackles of brilliant lightning came slanting down across the dark sky.
Alicia, legs tucked under her, sat quietly in her seat, watching the storm deepen around them. Finally she asked him, “What’s the name of this place you’re taking me?”
“Doesn’t have one,” answered Jake.
“It’s not called the National Screwball Foundation or the Home for Wayward Girls?”
“They prefer to do business very discreetly.”
“Who runs it?”
“Lady named Maggie Pennoyer.”
“A friend of yours?”
The skycar took a sudden bounce and lightning turned the wet darkness outside an intense pale blue.
Jake said, “A longtime friend.”
“You really believe she can help me?”
“She’s very good, especially with people whose minds have been tampered with in one way or another.”
“What about the staff? Do I have to talk to another bunch of robots?”
“Last time I heard, Maggie had two humans and three androids working with her,” he said. “Of course, that was about five years ago.”
“Oh, that’s something else I remember hearing about you. You were in prison—for a long time, wasn’t it?”
“Four years.”
“That’s not so awfully long.”
“Depends.”
“It was .the Freezer.” She hugged herself, shivering. “That must be awful, being in suspended animation. Did you dream?”
“They tell you that you don’t.”
“But you did?”
“Some.” They were over the Connecticut Sector of Tristate now and the storm wasn’t yet as bad as it had been over New York. After scanning the dashpanel, Jake punched out a landing pattern. “We’re going to a town called Bridgefield.”
“I’ve been there. It was pretty dull.”
Very gradually the skycar began its descent.
The lightsign hanging from the pole next to the rainswept landing area read NUTMEG NATURE PRESERVE.
“So it does have a name,” observed Alicia.
“Camouflage.”
The landing lights of their skycar swept across a stand of white maples while settling down to a landing on the nearly empty lot.
Jake got out, made his way around the car in the hardfalling rain and helped the young woman out. “We have to go up along that path yonder.”
“How many acres does this cover?” She hunched her narrow shoulders as the rain hit her, moving close to him.
“About twenty.”
The gravel pathway curved through woods. All at once on their right a sturdy oak quivered, then vanished with a faint sizzling pop.
“Oops,” said Alicia, glancing around at the rainy night woods. “Is all this a projection?”
“Only about half,” answered Jake. “It’s a blend of real trees and holograms.”
From up ahead came the sound of booted feet crunching on the wet gravel. A tall, lanky man, wrapped up in a plasticoat and carrying both a lantern and a tool kit, was coming down toward them.
Halting a few feet away, he held up the lantern and looked them over. “Howdy,” he said at last.
“Evening,” said Jake. “You must be Jason McNaughton.”
“That I am. Maggie warned me to expect you folks.”
Jake grinned.
Jason said, “Got some trees on the fritz. Want to fix them tonight, even though the weather is foul.” He nodded curtly at Alicia, eased around her and continued on down the dark path.
“Caretaker,” explained Jake.
At the path end was a clearing with a rustic cabin at its center. Yellow light showed at most of its leaded windows.
The realwood door came creaking open as Jake’s foot touched the top porch step.
A small woman, not more than four feet high, was framed in the rectangle of light. “Jake, it’s wonderful to see you again,” she said, laughing.
“Same here, Maggie.” He crouched on the welcome mat, put both arms around her.
Maggie Pennoyer hugged him, then kissed him on the cheek. “C’mon in and bring the injured dove,” she invited. Her left leg was several inches shorter than her right and on her left foot she wore a built-up shoe.
“Maggie has the notion that I specialize in rescuing waifs and strays,” explained Jake.
The stone fireplace and the logs burning in it were real.
Alicia held out her hand. “I’m Alicia Bower.”
Shaking hands, Maggie told her, “You’ll have noticed that I didn’t turn out quite symmetrical. Some sort of manufacturing flaw. If I was one of those slick andies your pop turns out, they could have sent me back. Sit down, why don’t you? Looks like they’ve been starving you.”
Alicia took the indicated wood-and-leather chair near the fire. “I did that to myself, I think,” she said. “Being in that place pretty much took away my appetite.”
“Spearman.” Maggie spit the name out. “Did you manage to coldcock that sadistic son of a bitch while you were extricating her, Jake?”
“Alicia took care of that.”
Maggie slapped her right hand against her thigh. “Did you inflict considerable pain and suffering on him?”
“Just stungunned him.”
“That’s nowhere near what he deserves, the bastard, but it’s, hell, a start.”
“Jake tells me,” began the young woman, “that you can maybe—”
“Got her calling you by your first name already, huh?” She smiled over at Jake. “What is it about you that bowls most women over? It can’t be the fact that you’re so battered and weatherbeaten, can’t be the mean look in your eyes or the fact that you’re almost always glowering. And that alleged grin of yours is so evil that it curdles the blood of infants and—”
“What say you concentrate on Alicia.” Jake settled onto a raw wood bench.
“You’re absolutely right, Jake. Besides, there’s not enough time to fix all that ails you.” She, limping slightly, walked over to the young woman and stood scrutinizing her.
“Can you—get rid of whatever damage Dr. Spearman did?”
“That’s one of my specialties.”
“How exactly did you get into th
is kind of—”
“Jake didn’t fill you in, huh?” Maggie laughed once again. “Well, I used to be on their side. Yep, I worked for our enlightened United States Government for almost five years. During that time I came up with new and more efficient ways to erase harmful information from people’s brains. I applied my system and, hell, there must still be several hundred poor doinks wandering around this country who can’t think straight because of what I did to them back then. Then, about seven years ago, I suddenly came to my senses. Somewhat similar to a religious conversion, except I stayed a foulmouthed heathen. What I think I acquired, damn late in life, was a conscience. But, hell, most people never do manage to grow one. From that point, I’ve been devoting my efforts to reversing the sort of stuff I’d been doing.”
“Doesn’t that annoy your former bosses?”
She laughed. “Hell, it makes them chew nails and shit ingots,” Maggie said. “I move around a lot, and so far they haven’t caught up with me or been able to stop me. Do you like this latest setup, Jake?”
“Cozy.”
“Jason comes with it—and he’s about as much fun as my Uncle Si’s pickled cadaver. But it’s a nice quiet location and I’ve done some of my best work hereabouts.”
Jake asked her, “How many other clients do you have in residence right now?”
She held up three fingers of her right hand. “Just three, times are a little tough,” she said. “And the paltry fee I’m charging you, for old time’s sake, isn’t going to make me that much richer.”
“But think of the satisfaction you’ll get.”
She nodded at Alicia. “C’mon, I’ll show you down to your quarters,” she invited. “After dinner, I want you to turn in. We’ll start in the morning—early.”
38
BASCOM WAS PLAYING HIS SAXOPHONE when Gomez came into his office. Hazy morning sunshine was filling the big office and giving a fuzzy glow to all the clutter.
“How come you never play ‘Cielito Lindo’ on that dornick?” inquired Gomez.
“I’ve never found an acceptable bebop arrangement.”
“My next question is—why’d you summon me here in the wee hours of the morn or thereabouts?”
Tek Secret Page 17